Gamma and Omega hold hands, a solo exhibition by Romanian-born London-based artist Catinca Malaimare. at the Zabludowicz Collection. In it, Malaimare’s choreography takes the form of performance, sculpture, audio and film, revealing our intimate relationship with technological tools.
Bathed in a cool blue light, the central motif of the installation – an industrial roller conveyor belt on movable wheels – rests patiently in a curved shape. A multi-channel audio narrative plays from a set of speakers hidden behind disco balls as the lead characters, Gamma and Omega, slowly enter the exhibition space. Wearing repurposed vintage leather motorcycle racing costumes, religious stoles, and dyed mesh tops, the performers undertake an imagined ritual, their intuitive movements promoted through a series of cues and gestures.
For thirty minutes, Gamma and Omega intertwine and labour alongside the cumbersome conveyor belt. The machine acts as another body, each taking turns at being passive and active, connected and disconnected. Machines and devices depend on bodies to function, and in real time we watch Gamma and Omega portray the tenderness and toil of this dynamic. Using poetic, spiritual gestures, Malaimare facilitates an ephemeral, fleeting moment which acknowledges our technological co-dependence.
Outside the performance times, the installation continues to hold a history of bodies and movement. The artist’s soundtrack continues, and a video record of the performance plays from a wall-mounted monitor in the exhibition space. Malaimare contextualises her characters and their intervention with the conveyor belt and space in a multidimensional, continuous loop, even without their physical presence. Together the components of the installation and the performance play with time and metaphor, building on the artist’s ongoing observation of obsolete technologies.
Read curator Julia Greenway's interview with Catinca Malaimare on the Zabludowicz Collection's website
JG: You set out to create an environment of opposing elements: everything sits on an opposite spectrum from its counterpart. Do you find that by setting these parameters for yourself, the labour of your practice is the bridging of these binaries?
CM: I brought all these objects and movements together to weave a narrative about their interconnectedness. I feel so attached to these obsolete technologies, and I want to celebrate them and honour them through the choreography of bodies. Technology needs us – we need to touch it to power it up, stoke it and tap it to allow it to function. I love the co-dependence of bodies and devices; it is incredibly romantic. I feel privileged to facilitate that desire and attraction through a series of sentimental and spiritual gestures.
Performance Schedule:
Thursday 9th March, 7pm
Saturday 11th March, 3pm
Saturday 18th March, 3:30pm
Saturday 25th March, 3:30pm
Saturday 15th April, 3pm
Saturday 29th April, 3pm
Duration of performance: 30 minutes
Performers: Sian Fan and ZE
Sound Artist: Chlorys
Gamma and Omega hold hands, a solo exhibition by Romanian-born London-based artist Catinca Malaimare. at the Zabludowicz Collection. In it, Malaimare’s choreography takes the form of performance, sculpture, audio and film, revealing our intimate relationship with technological tools.
Bathed in a cool blue light, the central motif of the installation – an industrial roller conveyor belt on movable wheels – rests patiently in a curved shape. A multi-channel audio narrative plays from a set of speakers hidden behind disco balls as the lead characters, Gamma and Omega, slowly enter the exhibition space. Wearing repurposed vintage leather motorcycle racing costumes, religious stoles, and dyed mesh tops, the performers undertake an imagined ritual, their intuitive movements promoted through a series of cues and gestures.
For thirty minutes, Gamma and Omega intertwine and labour alongside the cumbersome conveyor belt. The machine acts as another body, each taking turns at being passive and active, connected and disconnected. Machines and devices depend on bodies to function, and in real time we watch Gamma and Omega portray the tenderness and toil of this dynamic. Using poetic, spiritual gestures, Malaimare facilitates an ephemeral, fleeting moment which acknowledges our technological co-dependence.
Outside the performance times, the installation continues to hold a history of bodies and movement. The artist’s soundtrack continues, and a video record of the performance plays from a wall-mounted monitor in the exhibition space. Malaimare contextualises her characters and their intervention with the conveyor belt and space in a multidimensional, continuous loop, even without their physical presence. Together the components of the installation and the performance play with time and metaphor, building on the artist’s ongoing observation of obsolete technologies.
Read curator Julia Greenway's interview with Catinca Malaimare on the Zabludowicz Collection's website
JG: You set out to create an environment of opposing elements: everything sits on an opposite spectrum from its counterpart. Do you find that by setting these parameters for yourself, the labour of your practice is the bridging of these binaries?
CM: I brought all these objects and movements together to weave a narrative about their interconnectedness. I feel so attached to these obsolete technologies, and I want to celebrate them and honour them through the choreography of bodies. Technology needs us – we need to touch it to power it up, stoke it and tap it to allow it to function. I love the co-dependence of bodies and devices; it is incredibly romantic. I feel privileged to facilitate that desire and attraction through a series of sentimental and spiritual gestures.
Performance Schedule:
Thursday 9th March, 7pm
Saturday 11th March, 3pm
Saturday 18th March, 3:30pm
Saturday 25th March, 3:30pm
Saturday 15th April, 3pm
Saturday 29th April, 3pm
Duration of performance: 30 minutes
Performers: Sian Fan and ZE
Sound Artist: Chlorys